Tel Aviv - Ten years ago Tzipi Livni was a novice legislator, entering parliament for the first time. Now, three general elections later, she finds herself within grasping distance of the prime minister's chair at the centre of the horseshoe-shaped cabinet table in the centre of the Knesset.
By Israeli standards, it has been a meteoric rise. While her two main opponents in Tuesday's election, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud
Brussels - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told her European Union counterparts Wednesday that her government is willing to reopen border crossings into the Gaza Strip for humanitarian reasons but insisted that weapons smuggling to Hamas must be halted.
"In order to help in answering the humanitarian need in the Gaza Strip, we are willing to cooperate in this as far as it is needed," Livni told reporters after a meeting with EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
Brussels - European Union foreign ministers were Wednesday holding dinner-time talks in Brussels with their Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, in a bid to convince her to re-open the Gaza crossings and revive the stalled Middle East peace process.
"We hope we can find an agreement that will make it possible for supplies to get into Gaza," said Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.
Tel Aviv/Gaza - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Monday that "progress" had been made in international efforts to reach a truce in Gaza, but "difficulties" remained.
Israel in the meantime kept up its offensive in Gaza, which entered its third week at the weekend, striking more targets from the air overnight, albeit a smaller number than in the earlier stages of the war.
Paris/Jerusalem - Israel will continue its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip until it reaches a point where "the operation exhausts itself" and militants no longer fire rockets at the Jewish state, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Thursday.
"It's not a case of a timetable, but a case of targets, and each day we have to do as new situation assessment," she told Israel's Channel 2 news from Paris where she met French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
Tel Aviv - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was scheduled to visit Cairo Thursday for talks on the escalating violence between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip.
Livni's trip comes as the Israeli inner, or security cabinet, gave the military the green light Wednesday to launch a series of operations against Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and which Israel sees as bearing ultimate responsibility for the rocket fire directed against the Jewish state.
Tel Aviv - Ten years ago Tzipi Livni was a novice legislator, entering parliament for the first time. Now, three general elections later, she finds herself within grasping distance of the prime minister's chair at the centre of the horseshoe-shaped cabinet table in the centre of the Knesset.
Brussels - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told her European Union counterparts Wednesday that her government is willing to reopen border crossings into the Gaza Strip for humanitarian reasons but insisted that weapons smuggling to Hamas must be halted.
Brussels - European Union foreign ministers were Wednesday holding dinner-time talks in Brussels with their Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, in a bid to convince her to re-open the Gaza crossings and revive the stalled Middle East peace process.
Paris/Jerusalem - Israel will continue its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip until it reaches a point where "the operation exhausts itself" and militants no longer fire rockets at the Jewish state, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Thursday.
